Tractor Trailer Accidents: Acting Quickly to Preserve Your Rights

In Massachusetts, the victims of truck accidents have three years to
file a lawsuit against a trucking company. But in tractor trailer
accident cases, perhaps more than any other type of auto accident case,
it is essential to act quickly to preserve evidence - both physical
evidence and electronic evidence.

Tractor trailers are equipped with "black boxes," similar to what are
often recovered from airplanes after airplane crashes. These so-called
Event Data Recorders (EDRs) can be a treasure trove of information in the
typical tractor trailer accident case. The information stored on an EDR
can show that a trucker never braked before an accident, how fast a truck
driver was going before an accident, and how long a driver had been
trucking for before the accident. This electronic information can turn a
case that might be one person's word (yours) against another's (the truck
driver's) into a case where certain facts favorable to your case can be
indisputably established.

But unless a lawyer acts quickly on your behalf - either by sending
the truck company a letter of preservation or by filing a lawsuit on your
behalf - all of this evidence will have a very short lifespan. Under
federal law, a trucking company need only retain most records for six
months after an accident. 49 C.F.R. S395.8(k).

In addition to being able to recover information from a built-in EDR,
a lawyer acting quickly on your behalf may be able to preserve data from
peripheral devices that the truck driver was using, such as GPS
navigators and radio systems. Your own GPS device - whether portable or
built into your car - may also contain information that a lawyer, acting
quickly on your behalf, can preserve.